There´s a short review of Maplestory at CVG.
There are a few interesting things about Maple Story that I need to share with you. The first is that it´s a sideways-scrolling 2D MMORPG. That´s not something you get to say every day. What´s more, it´s free to play.
Feeling a little deja vu? Yes, we have reviewed this before (PCG 152, 66%), but that was as a baffling import. With the game now out in Europe you can download it and be Euro-baffled as people talk to you in Russian and Portuguese.
The reason this game is free to play is that it includes a feature know as the ´cash shop´, wherein you can trade real greenbacks for in-game points, allowing you to buy pets, hats, and stuff that makes your life in the two-dimensional world of Maple Story a little easier. You don´t have to, but it is there.